You’ve tried counting macros for weight loss before and it worked! You lost 20lbs! Problem is, you gained it back, and then some. Hmm. Did it really work then?
The women that find us come in wanting to lose weight, they have high stress and feel sluggish. They find us because we are a non-competitive gym that focuses on women. They’ve tried Keto, macros, calorie counting, and the weight keeps coming back and they keep feeling worse and worse.
They say they won’t work out on their own, don’t plan their meals in advance, and have a million priorities, none of which are themselves. Think job, spouse, kids. I get it. I was that person and still am to some degree. It’s always easier to do something for my kids than it is myself. I am woman, hear me nurture.
100% of the time I talk to them about nutrition. I explain the keys to success. I hand off the keys to the kingdom. Seriously, if you come in and meet with me I will tell you all the answers. This is because information is free, it can be found everywhere. Coaching (which is what people pay for) is about coaching you on what to focus on first, how to block out the noise, and what you need to do next.
No matter if you hire a coach or do it on your own, if you aren’t willing to take a look at your diet and make improvements, you are not going to lose weight and keep it off.
When they don’t take me up on my offer to help with their nutrition, most times it’s because they say they will go back to Keto, or counting macros for weight loss. They don’t want a competitive gym, but they want to continue to follow a competitors diet.
Counting Macros for Weight Loss
If you are busy and don’t make yourself a priority and you’ve tried these things before yet you are still searching for the magic pill, you probably should not follow a diet with rules, restrictions and that is very time consuming. If the weight didn’t stay off by trying Keto, counting macros, etc last time, ask yourself what will be different this time.
Look, there is nothing wrong with counting calories or macros if you want temporary weight loss for a major athletic event (wrestling, Olympic weightlifting) or a physique competition.
Counting macros for weight loss is hugely time consuming. Especially for someone who already feels like they are going a million miles an hour. These people are professionals and getting paid for what their body looks like. That is their focus.
You count macros to lose weight by first calculating what your macros should be. You then have to check every label and measure every morsel and then track in an app to fine tune these macros throughout the day. At the end of each night is where the real work begins. You need 35g of Protein, you’re over on carbs by 7g and your fat is under by 2g. Close, but no cigar. We can fill in that protein by force feeding ourselves another piece of steak. Remember when you were excited to get to eat so much steak and now you can’t imagine eating another bite? Thanks Keto.
If you can’t stay on top of counting macros for weight loss with 100% for a week, how are you going to do it for the rest of your life?
After you have reached your weight loss goal by counting macros, have you learned what works for your body and learned to change your habits? If not, you will go back to eating the way you did before you started this diet filled with process, rules and restrictions. And then, yep, here we go.. you gain it all back. And then some because now we are older and our bodies are tired of the damage we are doing to them.
Precision Nutrition is home to the world’s top nutrition coaches (Coach Courtney and I are both certified Precision Nutrition coaches). And they one of the most well known and highly regarded nutrition education companies has this to say about counting macros for weight loss: “At Precision Nutrition, macronutrient counting isn’t our go-to method of regulating food intake. At least, not for most people. Macro counting works—especially for high-level, advanced goals, like preparing for a physique competition or a major athletic event.”
We aren’t training people for events. We are very upfront about that. We are a health and fitness facility. We tell every woman we speak to that we are a non competitive gym. If you don’t want to be treated like a competitive athlete in your gym, why would you want to follow a competitive athlete’s lifestyle outside of the gym?
Healthy Habits for Weight Loss
This is for people who want to not just lose weight temporarily, but to have a healthier body, more energy and improve their lifestyle.
If you want your life to change, you should change your life.
At Precision Nutrition, macronutrient counting isn’t our go-to method of regulating food intake. At least, not for most people. Macro counting works—especially for high-level, advanced goals, like preparing for a physique competition or a major athletic event.
– Precision Nutrition
We work with people every day that have found success in sustainable weight loss, energy improvements and increase in motivation by working on things like, increasing water, journaling, increase in protein, adding vegetables to their plate first before putting anything else on, writing a letter of gratitude each week, etc.
Like Barbara who is pictured here. She learned to remove the complexity out of her diet and we helped her find habits that work for her long term. She has continued success, long after our nutrition coaching ended.
Not all healthy habits we work on will directly lead to weight loss, but they all will directly affect your overall health. And that is what you should be after if you want weight loss results to last long term.
There are many many other benefits to healthy habits over macros or calorie counting, for example:
- Healthy habits are sustainable. Exercising regularly (even if it starts off with a 15 minute walk each day) and eating more protein to sustain muscle while you lose weight, is much simpler than counting macros. These healthy habits are not temporary, they become part of your lifestyle, while counting macros or calories is much more complicated and time consuming.
- Healthy habits support overall health: In addition to promoting weight loss, healthy habits such as exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, and getting enough sleep (a healthy habit we work on just like routines and stress) will also improve your overall health. You can lose weight in an unhealthy way by counting macros.
- Healthy habits improve body composition: While counting macros may help with weight loss, it does not necessarily improve body composition. After all, weight loss really should be called fat loss. We don’t want to lose weight in our muscles and bones we want to lose the fat and increase our muscle mass. That is another place where healthy comes in to play. With only counting macros for weight loss (and who provides them to you) who knows where the weight will come from. It’s incredibly difficult to target just fat, but we do it on the regular.
Bottom line is whatever you do, do it for life or it shouldn’t be a shock if the weight and health issues return.
If you are looking for a health and fitness gym vs a competitive gym – and are ready to ditch the competitive diet and have a healthy relationship with food, set up a meeting with one of our nutrition coaches. It starts with a 10 minute call. We all have time for a 10 minute call, especially if we stop counting macros. Click the link here.